Lewis Hamilton will take a five-place gird penalty at Suzuka, once the starting order for the race has been decided.

Hamilton will have to change his gearbox before tomorrow’s delayed qualifying session, resulting in the penalty, meaning he will definitely start no higher than sixth.

Drivers are allowed to change their gearboxes every four races without a penalty. Hamilton last changed his gearbox at Spa.

McLaren are still deciding whether or not to run their new rear wing tomorrow.

Update: More from McLaren:

In P3 today, we noticed abnormal gearbox oil pressure on Lewis?óÔé¼Ôäós car, which we believed we had corrected ahead of this afternoon?óÔé¼Ôäós qualifying session.

This afternoon, as we fired up Lewis?óÔé¼Ôäós car several times in preparation for qualifying, we became aware that the symptoms were worse than we?óÔé¼Ôäód originally diagnosed, and a decision was later taken to change the gearbox ahead of tomorrow?óÔé¼Ôäós qualifying session and the grand prix.

As a result, Lewis will receive a five-place grid penalty for tomorrow?óÔé¼Ôäós race.

121 comments on Hamilton gets five-place grid penalty

Don’t forget grid position isn’t so important here. I think we will see plenty of early overtaking by Lewis and he will be up with the other championship contenders before long. He just needs to take sure he survives the 1st lap.

Wow. That’s a shame. Looking at what has already happened in regards to the weather, I suppose anything can happen, We could be in for a few shocks tomorrow both in qualifying and the race!

It does mean Button can step up to the plate for Mclaren now, tomorrow. If he knows he’s ahead or has an advantage I think that’s when Jenson performs the best. Good luck to both of them, it’s gonna be a pivotal weekend for the team.

Man, this championship is driving me insane. Its 2h08 AM and i am up waiting for qualifying all in the hope Hamilton will qualify quite high to soften the 5 grid penalty and i will be off to bed hopefully i will be able to get 3 hours sleep before the race start.